Tuesday Quins - Stadium Club Chrome

I've already got three versions of the same card from the Stadium Club set released by Topps last year. (They are the normal card, the red parallel and the black parallel.) This post features two more cards from the Chrome version of the Stadium Club set. That brings me up to five cards in total - hence why this is a Tuesday Quins post not a Tuesday Twins post!

Card Number 1010: Topps Stadium Club Chrome, 2021; #24

In real life this is a bit shinier than the regular version of the card. And it has the Stadium Club Chrome logo on the front. Otherwise there is not much to add to what I've said previously. 

And here's the back...

Card Number 1011: Topps Stadium Club Chrome (refractor), 2021; #24

This card went all shimmering crazy on the scanner. In real life it doesn't look hugely different to the first Chrome card I've posted. 

It says 'refractor' on the back as a handy help for collectors.

My thanks go out to Graham for the base card and to Sam for the refractor. 

Total: 1011 cards

Topps in Y2K x 4

The sheer volume of cards being produced at the turn of the Millennium means there are loads of cards in my collection from the year 2000. Here are some from Topps.

Card Number 876: Topps Opening Day, 2000; #2

I know I could have waited and put this in a 'Tuesday Twins' post, but hey, it's in this post instead. 

The Opening Day set had a silver border around it and the foil stamp saying opening day. I wish Topps would go back to foil stamps instead of photoshopping in Opening Day logos. 

This card has the same number as the regular flagship set, which doesn't always happen with Opening Day sets.

The back is uninspiring.

From a cheapie parallel set to something a bit odder.

Card Number 877: Topps Finest Moments refractor, 2000; #FM3

There were only 4 "moments" commemorated in the Topps Finest set in 2000. Chipper Jones winning the 1999 National league MVP, Ivan Rodriguez winning the American League MVP, Wade Boggs recording his 3000th hit, and Tony recording his 3000th hit. In a freaky alignment of events, Tony hit his 3000th hit the day before Wade hit his. Two 3000th hits on consecutive days! 

The back talks about Tony's 3000th hit and notes that it was just one of four hits for him in that game. 

Also, a bonus point for Topps actually putting the word 'refractor' on the back under the set number. That's the handy information that often gets left off cards. 

Card Number 878: Topps Gallery, 2000; #118

Tony had another card in the Gallery in 2000, as well as this card in the "Masters of the Game" subset. (The other card is blogged here.)

Topps used a similar photo on their Magic Moments cards in the flagship set from 2000.

The back has a confusing array of fonts and, frankly, looks a bit of a mess.

Reading the question on the back, it was kind of easy to guess the answer. Of course it would be A. Any kind of question where one of the options is a ridiculously low number of strike outs in a season, the number of strike outs is always lower than the other thing it's being compared with. Always.

Card Number 879: Topps Stars, 2000; #60

I have worked with a number of graphic designers in my career and I feel I am able to interpret the intentions of designers fairly well, even when they don't work out. I think the idea here is that the player is illuminated by searchlights, like a film star would be, and that is casting the player's shadow. It doesn't quite work because Tony is running a base path and there is a person in the background in the photo, but Topps have never let the results interfere with their vision. If the card ends up looking like there is some kind of interdimensional rip in space-time going on, then, well, print it anyway.

Having said all that, I quite like Topps Stars. On the back we get a batting donut picture, again. That's been a recurring theme this week! Weirdly Fuji lists the other Tony Gwynn card from this set in his list of cards featuring batting donuts. So, again, that's two cards from the same set with a picture that includes a batting donut - as was the case a few days back!

I blogged the other card that Tony had in Topps Stars in 2000 back in September.

And that's it for Topps cards from 2000... for now!

Total: 879 cards

Modern Monday - silver pack chrome

Today's card arrived in all its shiny glory hard on the heels of my first Tony Gwynn card from 2021. It came from Jeff in one of the UK collectors groups on Facebook. 

Card Number 605: Topps Silver Pack Chrome, 2021; #86BC-77

These chrome cards are included in the "Silver packs" inserted as bonuses in hobby boxes of Topps Series 1. It has a different picture of Tony than the regular 35th anniversary retro cards that make up a large insert set in the flagship Series 1 set. 

The scanner really activated the refractor card. I haven't done an overhead scan, but I did take a photo to pop on Instagram, so here's that for comparison (complete with a bit of my thumb):

There are 100 cards in both the insert set and the chrome cards from the silver packs. I've seen a lot of love for these cards in the collectors groups but it's not a template I've ever been particularly fond of. Of course, I own the original 1986 card, and I have an Archives card from 2014 that also uses this template so it isn't new to me. 

The cardback is pretty dull. It manages to be both a big stats box and an incomplete record. 

This is bizarre to me. If you are going to just have a massive stats box, why would you not have all 19 seasons on there? But the thing that annoys me the most about this is they start from 1988. It's a 1986 style card. Tony was playing in 1986. Couldn't they have squeezed 1986 on there? It just feels like a silly missed opportunity.

However, this is a very nice refractor card and it means I have a quarter of the checklist of Tony Gwynn cards from Series 1 already. I would like to add the other retro card and I will be keeping my eyes peeled for it.

Total: 605 cards

Tuesday Twins - preview refractor

This card was in the bundle I bought recently. I'd mentally discounted it as a dupe when I bought the bundle, but when it arrived I got a pleasant surprise because it had a multi-coloured sheen on it, and the word 'refractor' on the back. There was an additional surprise when I went to log it on Trading Card Database and found out it had the wrong card number, because I was looking in the wrong set and it was a preview card.

One of the fun things about collecting cards from the 90s is finding out what cards they actually are!

Card Number 588: Bowman's Best Previews Refractors, 1996; #BBP10

This card has suffered some serious warping. I reckon it's bowed about a millimetre across the width. Apart from the rainbow sheen, it is exactly the same as the regular Bowman's Best shiny card (which I blogged about back in November!) 

The Bowman's Best Preview cards were included as inserts in the regular Bowman set from 1996, with 30 cards from the Bowman's Best range available as the regular style cards and the refractors.

The cardback is also exactly the same as the regualar edition, apart from the top left corner where it has the number and the word 'refractor'. The cardback, with its "stat-scan" and "super skill" is worth having twice.

So that's today's 'twin', which I thought was a refractor parallel of a card I had and turned out to be a refractor parallel from a whole other different set.

Total: 588 cards